Promotion and religation in the future

[marmer]

Cap F1 grid at 10 teams.
Have a 2nd grid using previous year engines no development allowed. For any teams looking to join F1 (providing there is interest) perhaps a spec car to keep costs down but allow teams to get used to how F1 works. Best team each year swaps with worst of previous. Would be kind of like an faster f2 would help with drivers experience and provide a natural path way for teams. Under 23 drivers apart from teams that have come down with drivers under contract.
Race at the same time as F1 but instant blue flags

[jjn9128]

I had a similar idea a while back. It's the logistics of F1, on top of designing and manufacturing car, which new teams really struggle with, so allowing new teams to come in with a spec/customer car makes sense to me. It's basically the model Haas used, though they had to design and manufacture their own chassis and all the aero - albeit in reality that was done by Dallara with help from Ferrari personnel moving across. Then there's Toro Rosso and Super Aguri - Toro Rosso would be struggling more now without being a customer for 2 years at the start and Super Aguri had a comparable car to the factory team using the year old Honda, until the money ran out.

There are loads of motorsports companies with great histories who never made it to F1 - ART, Prema, DAMS, Carlin...etc Why not allow them to try and step up in a customer role?! The last team that tried was Manor, but their business model was wrong (not their fault, but based on Moseley's promised budget cap), I suppose the HRT entry was originally Campos...

I'd be more interested in getting teams in on a longer term though, so I'm not sure I like the promotion/relegation model. I would have some safeguards to prevent a high turnover - like they get 2 years grace as a customer to sort out facilities...etc during which time they're not eligible for constructor championship payments, but they get money from the TV pot. They also pay an additional fee on top of their entry ($5million/year or something), which they get back if they make the step to full constructor ($10million is basically the same as the 10th place constructor isn't it?).

[NathanOlder]

But this second tier wouldn't be regarded as anything more than what F2 currently is. Last year in Hungary F2 quaified 5.8 seconds off the back of the F1 grid, so its not far behind.

I don't really see what this will add, the only thing I can think of, is it would be at first filled with ex (not quite good enough) F1 drivers still under your age cap maybe ? but they would soon be replaced by the current F2 & GP3 drivers on the way up.

I think all in all, it would be way more expensive than F2 , running last years F1 engines would be expensive, and if you need last years car parts, someone has to make them, and they wont be doing it at a loss. The current F2 car weighs almost the same as an F1 car , it just has about 300hp less.

It's a fun idea, and sure I would watch it, but if a team is serious about entering F1 some time, they can certainly start in GP3 then progress to F2 and finally F1. I'd imagine if Prema, DAMS , ART wanted to join F1, the FIA would be more than happy to have them in.

Another thing to consider is, imagine you have your team in F1's second division, you dont need full factory as your buying last years Williams (example) and buying last years Mercedes PU (example) you win the championship with your star driver Pascal Wehrlein at the last race after a season long battle with 2 other decent teams and you gain promotion at the expense of Sauber F1.

You now have 5 months to build your own F1 car (probably need 2years) to be ready for a chance to survive. Sauber now have massive facilities and no use for them, the finances hit them hard, they cant afford a decent driver, they never recover for the second division and they are gone for good at the expense of a team with no facilities for F1.

I think all that needs to be done for something like your idea is, get Cosworth to start making some CA2012 V8 engines used in 2012 F1, and put them in an F2 car. The romotion relegation thing is madness, its not like football or rugby where the division above is the exact same sport just done at a better standard, Motorsport formula's are completely different "games" going from 1 to the other is like going from Tennis to Squash.